Good news

The headline is that I do not need surgery on my thumb to repair the torn ligaments. I also get to get rid of the hard cast and get into a custom "splint" tomorrow. This will allow greater mobility and easier bathing. Jim is especially happy that I will be able to cook without his (read: minimal) help.

In other good news, we've been getting a lot of much needed snow over the last 24 hours. Boomer is especially happy with the fresh powder and frolics endlessly without provocation, though for the camera, we enjoy encouraging him.

Not sure if this even translates, but there's a lot of fresh snow falling -- almost a foot. At the time of this photo, as is the case during many of Boomer's snow escapades, Riley is completely ignoring him and already inside snuggled on the sofa.

The Thumb Spica Cast

That's the technical term, anyway, or "the pink cast."

Monday they will cut this one off, examine the stability of the thumb joint and let me know whether surgery to reattach the ligaments is recommended. Either way, I will end up back in another cast for several more weeks. Last time I had more than a dozen color choices, all but two (navy and clear) were bright neon in nature. I will be at a different office location, but I suspect I will have a color choice there as well and am looking for recommendations. Orange, sky blue or purple are the leading three. Look, when you are in this situation, you gotta look for anything at least mildly amusing, so roll with me here.

We're Ready

Ready, at least on the food front, for anything.

Had a giant day of food and supply shopping on our trip to Grand Junction this week. You know on some receipts it tells you the number of items purchased? Well between Sam's and Walmart, we bought 152 items. That may be a new Lilly record. While it takes a lot of time and money up front to shop so much, the resulting convenience and savings are huge.

Below is a thrilling shot of our refrigerator. Thrilling mostly to Jim, that is. Our basement frig and freezer are just as packed, and that actually thrills me, too. We won't be shopping for at least another two months!

Injured, but NOT from skiing!

Took a fall down our stairs Monday night and tore the ligaments at the base of my thumb where it connects to the hand. Exceptionally and unbelievably painful from the moment it happened. Fortunately, I am doing much better now, immobilized in a "thumb spica" hard cast. It seems my chances for needing surgery are about 50-50, better than when I was first examined by an orthopedic hand surgeon. Will know more at my next exam in a couple of weeks. Meantime, I am told by doc that I can still ski, and I am told by my husband that I can still cook and clean. I must say however, he's being a trooper!

Snowshoeing

We finally took the plunge and ventured out for a snowshoeing adventure. We loaded up the dogs and drove to Priest Lake, a beautiful 15 minute drive outside of Telluride. The maps were confusing, but we were able to find our way well enough to really enjoy ourselves. The dogs had a blast, too, as is always the case! We were the only snowshoers, but there were a lot of cross-country skiers. The lake was frozen and covered with snow, but the trails were in and out of trees with mountains all around. Truly gorgeous.

This was Jim's first time snowshoeing, and he really liked it!

The 40 degree sunshine made everything better!

The New Routine

We are getting into a comfortable routine of sorts, especially now that the college football season is over, the NFL season is winding down, and the ski season is in full swing.

Every morning for more than 3 weeks now, I take the dogs about a mile and a half up the street until it dead ends into the mountains. Most of the time they are off-leash and Boomer, especially, loves the snow. He dives and rolls and squiggles in it at random intervals. He leaves the snow on his face instead of shaking it off and just generally is pleased with himself and his morning adventures the entire walk. Riley just saunters along, unless playfully attacked by Boomer, again at random intervals. Most of the time Jim joins us, but some mornings he lifts weights instead. That's my muscle man.

After the walk, there's a quick turn around to head out the door, catch the Goose (town shuttle) and ski. We make a sandwich and shove it into our ski jackets so we can avoid the $15 per person lunch on the mountain and all the terrifically fat calories it offers. After skiing a couple of hours, we have our sandwich at one of the many benches, picnic tables or restaurants depending on the weather. My favorite is at the top of the "See Forever" run, which, as it sounds, offers spectacular views. In the sunshine, it's hard to beat that 30 minute lunch break.

After skiing, there's household or business related work, as I am involved in several different projects and activities. I cook up some sort of dinner every night, and I especially like hunting for and trying new recipes online. I love cooking almost as much as Jim loves eating. It works for us!

Gravity

It can be a scary thing on the ski slopes, gravity that is. It pulls you down the steep mountain as you gain speed and in our case, do everything we can to stay in control and survive the ride. But something has changed. We've realized after enough time on the mountain that gravity is our friend. Our human friends, who are much, much better skiers than us, have repeatedly told us to let gravity do it's thing, and everything will sync up from there.... making the turns, catching the edge, and staying in balance.

Today was a stellar ski day. Beautiful sunshine, warm temps, great base and things just clicked. Jim and I both felt more confident on our skis than ever before. That's a nice feeling for folks who have only skied perhaps 40 days in our lives. We hope to get even better in our technique, looser, and even more confident. That means more fun. And we're already having lots of fun!